Snap fastener attaching apparatus

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for attaching plastic snap fasteners to an article of clothing or the like including a plurality of snap fastener attaching machines mounted in spaced relation to each other on a cylindrical rod permitting each attaching machine to be adjustably spaced from the adjacent attaching machine and permitting each attaching machine to be pivoted away individually from the other machines for servicing and for refilling with snap fastener elements.

Unite States Patent Gilbert A. Littell Versailles, Ky. [2]] Appl. No.875,687

[22] Filed Nov. 12, 1969 [45] Patented Oct. 12, 1971 [73] AssigneeTextron Inc.

[72] Inventor [54] SNAlP FASTENER ATTACHING APPARATUS 9 Claims, 1Drawing Fig.

[52] 11.8. CI 227/18 A4lh 37/04 Field of Search 227/15, 16,

17,18, 93, 94, 95, 109; 21 l/7, 8, 40; 248/2, 133, 137, l39,l41;3l2/327[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,165,122 7/1939 Ashberry312/327 X 2,736,426 2/1956 l-lamilton.... 312/327 X 3,225,993 12/1965Hall 227/18 Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Attorney-Meech &Field ABSTRACT: Apparatus for attaching plastic snap fasteners to anarticle of clothing or the like including a plurality of snap fastenerattaching machines mounted in spaced relation to each other on acylindrical rod permitting each attaching machine to be adjustablyspaced from the adjacent attaching machine and permitting each attachingmachine to be pivoted away individually from the other machines forservicing and for refilling with snap fastener elements.

PAIENIEnncmm INVENTOR. GILBERT A. LITTELL ATTORNEYS SNAP FASTENERA'I'IACHING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention The present invention relates to apparatus for attachingplastic snap fastener elements to an article of material and, moreparticularly, to such apparatus having multiple units of attachingmachines.

2. Description of the Prior Art U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,614,714; 2,735,567;3,238,082 and 3,049,462 are representative of prior art apparatus forattaching snap fasteners to material. A cursory review of such prior artdevices presents a clear indication of their extreme complexity and oftheir complicated operating mechanisms; in addition, none of such priorart devices have made any provisions for arranging their structures insuch a manner to facilitate servicing and repair. The prior art devicesare also deficient in any recognization or utilization of multiple unitsof attaching machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, an object of the presentinvention to arrange a plurality of snap fastener attaching machinesinto a unitary apparatus for performing a plurality of simultaneousoperations.

The present invention is summarized in that apparatus for attaching snapfastener elements to an article of material includes a support base, aplurality of snap fastener attaching machines on the base with eachmachine having a resting portion and a mounting portion, a rest on thebase engaged by each machine resting portion, a mount on the basecooperating with each machine mounting portion, and a clamping deviceadjustably clamping the mounting portion of each machine to the mountwhereby each machine is selectively spaced from adjacent machines.

The present invention has another object in that a plurality of snapfastener attaching machines are separately adjustable on a supportingbase.

It is another object of this invention to facilitate servicing,repairing and supplying apparatus embodying a plurality of snap fastenerattaching machines.

Another object of this invention is to provide snap fastener attachingapparatus with a plurality of attaching machines that are individuallypivoted on a support base.

A further object of the present invention is to construct multiple snapfastener attaching machines into a single unitary arrangement resultingin an extremely economical operation of an automated system.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The single FIGURE of the drawing is apartial isometric viewof snap fastener attaching apparatus embodying thepresent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As is illustrated in the singleFIGURE of the drawing, the present invention is embodied in apparatusincluding a plurality of machines for attaching plastic snap fastenersto any suitable material, such as an article of clothing where snapfasteners are utilized to close an opening in the article of clothing.The apparatus includes a flat support base which may be a tabletop,stand or the upper surface of a cabinet. Adjacent its rear edge, thebase 10 has an elongated strip or rest bar 12. A supporting bar in theform of a cylindrical rod 14 is mounted in spaced relation to thesurface of base 10 adjacent its front edge by means of angle brackets 16and 18, on each end of rod 14, which are fixed to base 10 by anysuitable means, such as capscrews l9.

In the illustrated embodiment, four fastener attaching machines areutilized but any variety of multiple units may be used in accordancewith the requirements of the particular fastening operations. These fourmachines, indicated generally at 20, 22, 24 and 26, respectively, areidentical in construction so only the pertinent structure of one suchmachine is being described in detail. For example, the fastenerattaching machine 20 has a generally rectangular boxlike configurationformed of relatively thin upper and lower hollow casings. The uppercasing 30 has an opened top wall to receive a pair of snap fastenerreels in side-by-side relation to each other. The snap fastener reel 32comprises a continuous strip of plastic snap fastener backing elements34 joined together by severable links; similarly, the snap fastener reel36 comprises a continuous strip of plastic snap fastener stud elements38 (or socket elements) joined together by severable links.

The upper casing 30 is fixedly supported on a similarly shaped lowercasing 40 which contains the feeding, cutting and clamping mechanism forthe two fastener elements 34 and 38; such mechanism is not beingdescribed in detail since any type may be utilized with the presentinvention. A pair of snap fastener chutes 42 and 44 project from therear of casing 40 to receive the strips 34 and 38, respectively. Thechutes 42 and 44 define spaced feeding guides for moving the strips 34and 38 through the casing 40 to the front operating station 46 where thefeeding, cutting and clamping operations are performed on the snapfasteners.

The operating station 46 includes feeding means for advancing the strips34 and 38, means for cutting a single backing element and a single studelement (or socket elements) therefrom, respectively, and clamping meansto clamp a backing element to a stud element with the cloth or garmentmaterial therebetween. The control system for activating the feeding,cutting and clamping mechanism may be of any suitable type, such as apneumatic system utilizing an air cylinder As shown in the drawing thebottom rear edge of the casing 40 defines a resting portion which merelysits on the bar 12 while the front of the casing 40 defines a mountingportion which is supported on a mount in the form of a cylindrical rod114. The lower front edge of casing 40 is provided with a hemisphericalcutout so that it engages the rear half of the circumferential wall ofthe rod 114. A clamping block 50 has a similar hemispherical cutout sothat it engages the front half of the circumferential wall of the rod14. The clamping block 50 is attached to the front wall of casing 40' bya pair of capscrews 52 and 54 which transversely straddle thecylindrical rod 14.

The above arrangement has the particular advantage of permitting any oneof the attaching machines 20, 22, 24 or 26 to be pivoted on the mountrod 114 so as to be displaced from the adjacent machines. For example,the end attaching machine 26 is shown in the drawing during such pivotedmovement. Because the mount rod 14 is spaced above the surface of base110, the machine 26 may be pivoted slightly beyond so that it will reston the edge of base 10;; in such position, the sideplate of casing 40may be removed whereupon the entire feeding, cutting and clampingmechanism is exposed for service, repair and/or replacement of parts. Ifit is desired to merely replace empty reels 32 and 36, the attachingmachine 26 need only be pivoted to a suitable angle when the empty reelsare readily removed and new reels inserted.

The four machines 20, 22, 24 and 26 are shown in the drawing as beingequally spaced from each other so that upon insertion of a piece ofmaterial in the V-shaped openings defined by each operating station 46permits simultaneous attachment of four pairs of snap fasteners (34 and38 for each pair) to the material in equal spaced relation to eachother. Such an operation is economically advantageous when plural snapfasteners are attached to a garment, e.g. a shirt, dress, jackets, etc.Of course, if more than four snap fasteners are desired, the apparatusis supplied with additional attaching machines.

It should also be noted that the four machines 20, 22, 24 and 26 areindividually adjustable laterally on the mount rod 14 so as to beunevenly spaced from each other. With such an arrangement it is possibleto space the four machines 20, 22, 24 and 26 from each other toaccommodate any particular spacing that may be desired with respect tolocating the snap fasteners on the material.

Inasmuch as the present invention is subject to many variations,modifications and changes in detail, it is intended that all mattercontained in the foregoing description or shown in the accompanyingdrawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for attaching snap fasteners to material comprising asupport base,

a plurality of snap fastener attaching machines on said base,

each of said attaching machines having a resting portion and a mountingportion,

rest means on said support base engaging the resting portion of eachattaching machine,

mounting means on said support base cooperating with the mountingportion of each attaching machine,

said mounting portion of each machine being movable relative to saidmounting means permitting the resting por tion of each machine to bemovable relative to the rest means on said support base, and

clamping means adjustably clamping the mounting portion of eachattaching machine to said mounting means whereby each attaching machineis selectively spaced from adjacent attaching machines.

2. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said clamping means includesa clamping block for each machine.

3. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the mounting portion of eachmachine is separately pivoted on said mounting means.

4. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said mounting means comprisesa rod element engaged by the mounting portion of each machine.

5. Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said rod element includes endbrackets to support said rod elementin spaced relation to said base.

6. Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said rod element is acylindrically shaped rod and the mounting portion of each machinedefines a pivoted connection with said rod whereby each machine isindividually pivoted away from the other machines for servicingpurposes.

7. Apparatus for attaching snap fasteners to material comprising asupport base,

a plurality of snap fastener attaching machines on said base,

each of said attaching machines having a resting portion and a mountingportion,

rest means on said support base engaging the resting portion of eachattaching machine,

mounting means including a cylindrically shaped rod on said support baseand cooperating with the mounting portion of each attaching machine,

the mounting portion of each machine defining a pivoted connection withsaid rod whereby each machine is individually pivoted away from theother machines for servicing purposes, and

clamping means including a clamping block having a hemispherical recesspartially encircling said rod and adjustably clamping the mountingportion of each machine to said rod whereby each attaching machine isselectively spaced from adjacent attaching machines.

8. Apparatus as recited in claim 7 wherein each machine has an open topwall for receiving reels of snap fasteners in continuous strips.

9. Apparatus as recited in claim 8 wherein each machine comprises agenerally rectangular housing disposed in edgewise fashion relative tosaid base.

1. Apparatus for attaching snap fasteners to material comprising asupport base, a plurality of snap fastener attaching machines on saidbase, each of said attaching machines having a resting portion and amounting portion, rest means on said support base engaging the restingportion of each attaching machine, mounting means on said support basecooperating with the mounting portion of each attaching machine, saidmounting portion of each machine being movable relative to said mountingmeans permitting the resting portion of each machine to be movablerelative to the rest means on said support base, and clamping meansadjustably clamping the mounting portion of each attaching machine tosaid mounting means whereby each attaching machine is selectively spacedfrom adjacent attaching machines.
 2. Apparatus as recited in claim 1wherein said clamping means includes a clamping block for each machine.3. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the mounting portion of eachmachine is separately pivoted on said mounting means.
 4. Apparatus asrecited in claim 1 wherein said mounting means comprises a rod elementengaged by the mounting portion of each machine.
 5. Apparatus as recitedin claim 4 wherein said rod element includes end brackets to supportsaid rod element in spaced relation to said base.
 6. Apparatus asrecited in claim 4 wherein said rod element is a cylindrically shapedrod and the mounting portion of each machine defines a pivotedconnection with said rod whereby each machine is individually pivotedaway from the other machines for servicing purposes.
 7. Apparatus forattaching snap fasteners to material comprising a support base, aplurality of snap fastener attaching machines on said base, each of saidattaching machines having a resting portion and a mounting portion, restmeans on said support base engaging the resting portion of eachattaching machine, mounting means including a cylindrically shaped rodon said support base and cooperating with the mounting portion of eachattaching machine, the mounting portion of each machine defining apivoted connection with said rod whereby each machine is individuallypivoted away from the other machines for servicing purposes, andclamping means including a clamping block having a hemispherical recesspartially encircling said rod and adjustably clamping the mountingportion of each machine to said rod whereby each attaching machine isselectively spaced from adjacent attaching machines.
 8. Apparatus asrecited in claim 7 wherein each machine has an open top wall forreceiving reels of snap fasteners in continuous strips.
 9. Apparatus asrecited in claim 8 wherein each machine comprises a generallyrectangular housing disposed in edgewise fashion relative to said base.